Last year’s Bafta film awards were so white that they earned a rebuke from the Duke of Cambridge, but this weekend’s ceremony will be the most diverse yet.
The cancellation of blockbuster releases as a result of Covid-19, plus an overhaul of the voting system after the awards were criticised for a lack of diversity last year, has led to the most varied shortlists in recent memory.
Many of those vying for the bronze mask statuettes are not household names. Of the 24 actors and actresses nominated in the main categories, only four have previously been shortlisted for a Bafta. By contrast, all but two of last year’s 20 acting nominees had been nominated previously. In addition, four of the six best-director nominees are first-timers.
All nominees in the main acting categories last year were white, and there were no female nominees for best director. This year 16 acting nominees come from ethnic minority backgrounds and four female directors have been named.
Prince William, Bafta’s president, said on stage at the Royal Albert Hall last year: “In 2020, and not for the first time in the last few years, we find ourselves talking again about the need to do more to ensure diversity in the sector and in the awards process — that simply cannot be right in this day and age.”
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One of those tipped for success is Bukky Bakray, 18, a schoolgirl from Hackney, east London, who plays the lead role in the Netflix teen drama film Rocks. She is the only performer nominated twice: for best actress and rising star. “It feels nice to be a part of a beautiful change,” Bakray says in Style magazine today. “I definitely see changes, but representation should be the norm. I don’t want to keep having these conversations, though, as it takes away from the art.”
Should Bakray win, it would be another victory for Theatre Peckham, the community theatre in south London where she is studying on the Originate acting programme. The Star Wars actor John Boyega graduated from the course in 2006 and won the rising-star Bafta in 2016 for his performance in The Force Awakens.
Despite her success in Rocks, Bakray enrolled at Theatre Peckham as recently as October. “Sometimes people feel like they’ve done it and there’s nothing more to learn in the art once you reach the goal of making a film,” said Suzann McLean, the theatre’s artistic director. “But, actually, she’s showing there’s so much more. She really wants to see herself as an actress and have a sustainable career in the industry.”
Also nominated — alongside Anthony Hopkins, Frances McDormand and the late Chadwick Boseman — are Vanessa Kirby, star of Pieces of a Woman, Tahar Rahim, the lead actor in The Mauritanian, and Wunmi Mosaku, who has been nominated for His House. Promising Young Woman, the feature-length directorial debut by Emerald Fennell, who played Camilla Parker Bowles in The Crown, is in contention for best picture.
Profound changes to Bafta voting procedures helped produce the diverse slate of nominees. Voting members were assigned mandatory viewing lists of 15 films each to avoid shortlists being dominated by blockbusters, and Bafta has pledged to add 1,000 voting members from “under-represented backgrounds” to its 6,700-strong electorate.
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Clara Amfo, a Radio 1 DJ, opened last night’s curtain-raiser with a tribute to the Duke of Edinburgh, who was Bafta’s first patron. She said that the support of Prince Philip and the Queen allowed Bafta to “continue in difficult times and to be here today in 2021 celebrating another outstanding year of achievement in film”.
The ceremony has been split across two nights at the Royal Albert Hall. Noel Clarke — who wrote, directed and starred in the Kidulthood films — was given the award for outstanding British contribution to cinema last night.
